Silver and Iron
by thebeastinsideusall
Summary: Kin has two forms for dragons. The ones we see as family, and the ones we see as significant others and offspring. If a dragon, or slayer, rejects their kin... It spells bad news for the other dragon. Kin is a bond, giving strength to the other dragons in the nest. When that link is severed, it could end horribly. Follow Gajeel Redfox as he tries to right the last of all his wrongs
1. Chapter 1

Thick gusts of winds blew about raven locks over a studded brow and sharp nose. Ruby red eyes watched the sky but there was nothing, not even clouds in the blissfully sunny day. It only caused the young male to snarl and pace outside the caved den that he'd called home for so long now, his home. Home that had been abandoned by the dragon that had created it with claws and talons, carved it into the mountain side.

Metalicana hadn't come back. it had been months now. Every day forced the young preteen slayer into a deeper rage filled with betrayal and abandonment. his chest ached with the unknown feeling and he kept his pacing until something made him give pause. The sound of a soft rumble from inside the den. He wasn't alone, and that caused his young dragon to awaken in his chest, to protect and provide.

Silbas was a scrawny runt barely older than three when Metalicana had dropped the toddler from his taloned paw inside the den years ago. Now, she was about ten years old, and a full-on dragon slayer like Gajeel was. That's why, in Gajeel's mind, that the dragon he called father had brought the runt to the den those years ago. Only a dragon could raise a dragon slayer, only a dragon could raise a dragon.

She had grey white hair that stuck out at odd angles, thick and soft with darker roots. Her eyes were the color of pure pale sapphires and shone in the shadows that Gajeel had been learning to control. A toothy grin greeted him as she sweated and huffed, her slim kid arms having a horrible time trying to lift a bucket of water to the cooking pot all by herself. At ten she was scrawny, even for a dragon, but she persevered and wouldn't ask for help, ever.

Silbas was a kin sister to Gajeel, sure they had a sort of relationship like any other siblings but it was strained. Metalicana had expressed to him one day why that was. Slayers weren't meant to be raised with another, they usually fought. More often then anything the stronger of the two would kill the weaker, dominance waged war in a dragon's instincts. Only the strong survived.  
He wouldn't do it, and he didn't feel the urge anyways. No matter how annoying the little shit got or when she pulled his hair or when she cried for no reason. That's why Metalicana decided to let the whelp live, she was strong and so was Gajeel. The first dragon to raise two dragon slayers to maturity, it's what Metalicana wanted. But he was gone.

Gajeel wordlessly helped the grey haired slayer child pour the water into the larger cooking pot, heated for a bath. Her eyes found the open entryway to the den and she sighed softly. Her heart ached as well, and Gajeel ruffled her hair softly before hefting a hunting bow onto his shoulder and left for the afternoon to find their food for the next day. He could scent it on her, the anguish and sadness souring her metallic personal scent of opals and rubies. Another reason he hated Metalicana all the more for abandoning them.

When he came back that night Silbas was curled up into his nest like bed instead of her own and he didn't mind. Not this time. He washed the grime and mud off of his skin before curling around her smaller body, sharing his body heat as his ruby eyes watched the den entrance, knowing nothing would come through it anymore. A low rumbling purr came from his chest as Silbas cried in her sleep, solidifying his choice. They'd leave, at first light. No more waiting around.

Metalicana wasn't coming back


	2. Chapter 2

"Gajeel! Come on! Let me down!" A deep threatening growl came from a broad chest under a chin with a single iron stud. Strong arms wound around struggling thighs of a wriggling preteen as her own fangs bare and snarl at him.

"Not on your life. You got no business taking on a wyvern by yourself." Came his throaty deep reply, she struggled more and he only tightened his grip so much that she quit her squirming and sighed, limp now over his shoulder as they traveled further from the cave she had tracked a wyvern to. Gajeel wasn't having it, the moment he'd caught up with the scrawny slayer he snatched her up and tucked tail. He could barely take on a young wyvern on his own, let alone a nest of them that was surely inside that cave.

"Gaj... you can't keep babyin' me. I've got to get stronger somehow." She griped from his back, arms crossed as if this was a normal thing for them and it really was. Gajeel plucking her from whatever crazy idea she had to make herself stronger, only for him to carry her bodily back for the danger and to safe ground.

For three years they had been on their own, traveling though the mountains and ravines all over Fiore. Training on the cliffs and searching for ore to munch on. Gajeel worked on his shadow magic, though he just didn't have a great handle on it, and helped Silbas train her silver dragon slayer magic. It wasn't that different than his own iron dragon slayer magic, except with silver it was a bit softer. Her hits weren't as hard but they lasted a bit longer. She was still learning, but so was Gajeel. Their dragon father left them too early on and Gajeel was learning as he went and teaching what he had figured out.

His grip loosens and a soft rumble comes from his chest sounds, something soft and calming to the younger dragon. "You know I just want you safe."

"I know." She whispers but Gajeel hears it with his enhanced senses. His grips shifts and instead of carrying her like the cavemen he had been, he let her feet hit the dirt road and his knee touched the ground. Silbas leaped back onto his back and her slim legs attempted to wind around his torso. His arms wound about her knees and he hunched forward slightly as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. On their way to the next small town, the next valley and the next mountain they would climb together. Side by side.


	3. Chapter 3

His cheek stung. The little hand that had slapped him felt more like that of an adult, his training with her had been paying off. But he couldn't make himself proud of that notion. She was a snarling mess of dragoness across from him. At fourteen Silbas was growing into her strength of a slayer with every passing day. She was getting stronger and faster, her reflexes better than ever. But the anguish on her face reminded Gajeel of the days he realized Metalicana wasn't coming back. He loathed himself for the fact he was making her feel like that again.

But he had to leave. He needed this job with a guild, a way to make up for lost time and gain even more power through training and earning jewels. A guild that didn't like women and refused to let him join of he kept his 'bratty little kid' near him any longer. Silbas's blue eyes were watery with tears but her throat sounded with a snarl of rage, gutteral and low. He was leaving her, she was old enough now to get by on her own. He had no more to teach her and he wanted to become the strongest slayer out there. The most powerful and feared.

Gajeel was breaking her dragon heart of silver ore and he knew it. He couldn't stop it, it needed to happen. Lately something in his seventeen year old heart and body was making things increasingly awkward with Silbas. His relationship with the younger slayer was becoming strained. The dragon in his soul was sending him signals he didn't want to act on. To kill or claim. While they had been raised together as dragon kin, Gajeel felt more than sibling feelings for the grey haired slayer. He needed to get away from her to save her from himself. Gajeel knew it would be hard on her, but it was harder on him to not act on instincts roaring inside of him.

Her pierced nose flare and the tears flowed down her cheeks and neck. He wanted so bad to wipe them away from her soft skin but he couldn't. Not anymore. This was for the best. "I gotta go whelp, you'll be fine." She flinched at the name as if she'd been the one to be slapped.

Silbas turned to face away from him, her fists clenched into tight balls at her hips and her arms were shaking. He could see the grey glint shinning up her arms and then up her neck to glide over her skin like molten metalic scales. Her high strung emotions causing the baser parts of her to awaken in the moment. Gajeel scented the salt of her tears through the aroma of pure silver as she took on her scaled skin. Not as strong or durable as his own, but there none the less.

"Don't look for me." Her voice was a whisper, she turned away from him and walked into the brush and then the thick trees. Gajeel felt wetness at his cheeks and he let them fall. He'd just done the worst thing dragons could do to the other besides killing, reject them. He rejected her soul as kin and in doing so had shattered their bond into fractals that had no hope of rekindling without one of them dying.

He turned the other way and made the slow walk to the guild he'd joined, Phantom Lord. They would help him grow stronger and gain power. From now on, he's on his own. All he wanted was to be stronger.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, Lucy?" The blonde celestial mage looked up from her morning strawberry smoothie. Her lips still wrapped around the pink straw while Natsu poked her shoulder to get her attention and to look behind them.

"What is it Natsu?" The blonde tilted her head as she swallowed her mouthful of delicious strawberries, looking to where Natsu was pointing to the table in the back corner of the guild hall. Where Gajeel was usually sat with a chunk of iron in his hand, and Levy nearby or at the same table as they talked about books. But today was different, because Levy was nowhere in sight. There were not small stacks of books, and Gajeel didn't even have a plate of screws and bolts sat before him.

Gajeel's dark red eyes were narrowed in concentration as he poured over maps of Fiore, his usually wild hair looked more wild than usual and was sticking out at odd angles all about his head. Lilly, his little black exceed, was standing on the edge of the maps and pointing, giving soft opinions as they looked for something on the wide spread papers.

"What do you think's up with metal mouth?" Lucy scowled at Natsu's nickname for the iron dragon slayer and pinched his arm for it, earning a huff from the fire slayer.

"That hurt Lucy!" It really hadn't.

"I don't know Natsu, maybe you should just ask him?" Lucy rolled her eyes and went back to her smoothie before it started to melt. She didn't pay much attention to Gajeel lately. Sure, she'd forgiven him of his treatment of her while he was part of Phantom Lord, and he'd still apologized to her. But they weren't very compatible as friends, they were both cordial to each other and neither on cared for teasing, too much. They weren't the closest but they had each others respect, and that was enough for the both of them.

Though it was strange that Levy wasn't near the iron slayer, they'd grown pretty close since their time on Tenrou Island. After coming back the two had started to sort of date, at least that's what most of the guild thought. Lucy hummed and finished her smoothie thanking Mira for her breakfast treat. "I'll go see if I can find Levy, why don't you actually go and ask him what he's doing. It's probably for a new job." Lucy gave Natsu a sweet pat on the shoulder and the two parted ways.

Making her way to the guild's small library, overflowing with new books the guild had been collecting since the group came back from the island. Levy wasn't in her usual table and chair, right front and center of the room. But, Lucy cold hear some sniffling. Furrowing her brow as Lucy climbed the steps to the second floor and began searching for the blunette. When she finally found Levy, Lucy's heart broke at the sight. Levy was huddled into a beanbag chair in the corner of the balcony, hiding from everyone by way of bookshelves.

"Levy? Levy whats wrong?" Lucy knelt down and Levy looked up, eyes red rimmed and bloodshot. Her cheeks were damp from tears and there were streaks of her mascaras running down her skin to the column of her throat. She'd been crying for awhile now. "Hey, hey, what is it?" Lucy knelt closer and wrapped her arms around Levy's shoulders.

"He broke up with me..." She murmured with a cracked voice. Lucy's eyes widened, but she moved closer to sit right beside levy in the overstuffed fluffy chair, comforting her blue haired friend as she cried into the books and dusty air of the library.

"Did he say why?" Once Levy had calmed Lucy summoned Plue, he always made the blue haired woman smile, and she pressed the dog spirit into Levy's arms. She cuddled the little shaking creature and her sobs grew quieter.

"Yeah.." She sniffled and swiped at her eyes and nose with the sleeves of her top, smearing it with her wet makeup and streaking her cheek with it. "He said, that this wasn't going to last anyways and that I deserve better.." Lucy narrowed her gaze, sure it sounded like Gajeel but something seemed off. To just dump Levy out of nowhere didn't seem like him.

"I'm so sorry Levy." Lucy held her friend while she continued to cry. Something wasn't right.

Meanwhile, Natsu had gone to confront Gajeel. The iron slayer was grumbling to himself and to Lilly, scratching out mountain peaks and shaking his head as he scoured over the maps. Little notes scribbled out over the edged of the large papers. Natsu was taken by surprise by the way Gajeel was scribbling line over the maps of mountain passes and known cave systems of wyverns and ore.

"What do you want Salamander?" Gajeel's rough voice seemed rougher today, and up close Natsu could see the bloodshot of his already ruby colored eyes. His large long fingered hands were splayed over the table and he looked up to the fire slayer that was half his size but matched him and even exceed him in strength some days.

"What are you doing? Where's Levy?" Gajeel's lips quirked down into a forwn and he went back to his maps.

"Tracking down a job." Natsu tilted his head. Gajeel's scent was a mix of regret, sour and sharp, with the gun metal taste in the air. A scent that sharpened on the iron slayer when he was determined and ready for a fight. This wasn't a job, and Natsu may be dense but he relied heavily on his dragon instincts. Something about the older slayer was off, and Natsu didn't know what it was.

"What's up metal brain?" Natsu crossed his arms, one bare and one sleeved, across his chest as he narrowed his gaze at the iron slayer. Something tingled up his spine as the red eyes of Gajeel's rose and zeroed in on Natsu like a wolf to a squirrel. Natsu instinctually took a half step back as the older slayer only growled a warning low in his throat.

"What's that for, you aluminum can?!" Natsu growled out, loudly, angry that he'd been sent back even that much by such a small gesture. But to a dragon that was a challenge or a warning, Natsu, being the flame head he was, lit up his fist. Ready for a fight.

Only for his fist to be shocked enough to make him yowl out in pain. Laxus towered over the youngest male slayer of Fairy Tail and glared down at the pinkette. "Natsu, I suggest you go find Lucy or Erza or Gray. Just leave." He growled low in his throat and it sounded thorugh the guild like a crack of thunder. "Now." Natsu, at the risk of not wanting anther shock, turned and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he went to the job board on the other side of the guild hall.

Laxus tuned, moving his fingers to his own pockets as he and Gajeel shared a small look before Gajeel was back at the maps. "Heard you and bookworm split this morning, that true?" Gajeel flashed his red eyes up at the older slayer and gave a curt nod as his only answer. Lilly leaped up and sat on Gajeel's right shoulder.

Laxus gives a small nod and then tilts his head, looking over the maps for a moment. "You're not taking a job are you?" It wasn't really a question anymore. Laxus had caught sight of the heartbroken Levy earlier that morning while going to grab coffee. Now, seeing what Gajeel was doing at the table. The other male was searching.

Gajeel breathed deeply from his nose and stood straight, he crossed his arms and glared at the table before him. Wishing it would set alfame and show him exactly where he needed to go. But it wouldn't and he would be gone a long time if he didn't narrow it down. Laxus looked over the other slayer. They were nearly exactly the same height and build. Though Gajeel seemed to have more defined legs and back then he did. He'd grown to respect the other slayer, his power was growing exponentially and his shadow magic was really developing the last few months. Gajeel had been working harder and pushing himself more and more.

"No." Gajeel spoke softly and then turned, grabbed the edge of the map he'd been writing on and tugged it off the table to haphazardly fold it as he walked away from the lightning slayer. Up the steps and towards the Master's office, Lilly looked back over Gajeel's shoulder and sent a shrug to the lightning dragon as they vanished behind the Master's door.


	5. Chapter 5

Natsu and Lucy watched as Gajeel came down the steps from the balcony floor of the guild, right out of Master Makarov's office. The small elder came behind the iron slayer and spoke so low only Gajeel could hear what was said but it made him lower his chin and a low growl of something was said back. Then Gajeel was gone, the doors of the guild slamming shut behind him. Leaving the guild in silence, it wasn't unusual for Gajeel to leave in a huff if he's annoyed. But their time the Master was now standing at the bottom of the steps with a solemn look on his face.

"What's up Gramps?" Natsu sat down at the bar as Master Makarov made himself at home on top of it, taking his full tankard from Mira.

"Gajeel is taking a leave of absence from the guild." He was answered with absolute silence that was only startled as Erza caught the fire slayer in a choke hold. Natsu yelling about Gajeel leaving for no reason. "Gajeel asked that we not follow him and trust him to be fine on his own. If he doesn't send word in four months, then we can go search for him." Was Master's calming response in a low tone. The Fairy Tail guild stared at the closed door and couldn't help but feel something was amiss.

"Natsu, calm yourself." Erza kept old of the struggling pink haired slayer only for Lucy to come forward and stand in his field of vision. The longer Lucy stood there in front of Natsu the calmer he became until finally Erza decided he was fine to be released. "Perhaps Gajeel just wishes to go train in the mountains again Natsu."

It was possible, sometimes the iron slayer did vanish from time to time to go train by himself. Always coming back a bit stronger and less surly. Though, Master said he'd be gone for four months, if not more. That was way longer than Gajeel was usually gone by himself. He'd taken Pantherlilly with him. Most of the time the exceed would stay behind with happy and Charle.

Natsu stared at the closed doors of the guild. His eyes narrowing a bit until Lucy pulled him to their usual table. He sat begrudgingly and crossed his arms. Something felt wrong in the pit of his gut. Sometimes it was his hunger for fire and other times it was the dragon in his soul. Gajeel was nakama now, family. And his own dragon didn't like that Gajeel just left without saying a word to them. Natsu's gaze flitted up to the balcony were blue eyes locked with own for a moment before Laxus vanished into his office once more.

"If he's not back in four months, we're going lookin' for him." Natsu growled low to his team. he didn't miss the way Lucy glanced to Levy as the blunette got a drink from the bar and went straight back to the library. The salty scent of tears in the air fading as the script mage walked away.


	6. Chapter 6

(Two months later)

Gajeel looked up to the stormy dark clouds above him in the sky. The icy chill in the air was growing colder and set his teeth on edge with the bite the cold caused to iron studs embedded in his arms and face. He hated the cold, always had. Even when he was a runt that was just meeting his dragon father. But he trudged on, heavy iron laced boots stomping up the barely there deer trail as he made his way further up the mountain. Spikes protrudding from the heel and toe helping him keep his footing.

He wasn't even in Fiore anymore. Two week prior he'd followed the trail and found himself in customs, trying to figure out how to cross the borders so he could continue on his quest. They'd asked him, business or pleasure, what the fuck did that even mean? Once he'd mentioned he was a mage that was on a mission, the customs officials had scrambled to hand him a tiny booklet. A passport they'd said, and then stamped it with some sort of official looking ink seal. He didn't rightly care, but he liked that the little book would now get him over any country borders as long as he had proof he was a legitimate mage. Like the stamp of black Fairy Tail symbol on his left shoulder.

Gajeel was headed into the mountain ranges of Caelium. The trail he was following is nearly a decade old. Anyone who could have seen her, didn't remember her in their every day lives. But there were whispers he could hear, legends that started to pop up nine years prior. Of a monster living in the icy mountains. Of several mining companies going bankrupt because their tunnels were collapsing after every shift and more than a handful of men had lost their lives to whatever was roaming these hills. Vast amounts of ores going missing.

"Are you sure about this Gajeel?" Pantherlilly floated just above Gajeel's shoulder, his white wings fluttering gently in the soft cold breeze.

"Tch, these cliffs are full of ore. Could smell it back in the city." Lilly looked to his partner and nodded, eyes looking back up to the treacherous landscape as the temperature continued to slowly drop the higher they went.

"Tell me about her." Gajeel's foot faltered for a half step before he righted his pace. His ruby red eye found Lilly's as the exceed landed on his left shoulder to rest his wings. Gajeel smirked as the exceed tried to hold back a shiver from the cold, he reached up and pulled the edge of his cloak over the black cat.

For long moments he just kept walking, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he fought the chill and tried his damndest to ignore the weather around him. Times like this, he missed his den. Not his home in fairy tail, the one room spartan cottage on the outskirts of the forest. No, he misses his den, his dragons den. The expanse of warm cave tunnels that made up the nest he'd grown up inside. It was warm, deep inside the cliff face that Metalicana had called home. There was always a fire burning, and the forge was always hot and ready for work no matter how long it sat without being kindled. Something having to do with the dragons magic keeping it alive and thriving even when no fodder was added to its flames. He misses the warmth of the nests themselves, straw pelts and ore, all melded together to create the prefect sleeping space.

Lilly sat silently on Gajeel's shoulder, wrapping the bit of cloak the slayer had placed over his small shoulders tighter around his small body. Waiting for the slayer to speak or tell him off. The few times Gajeel had confided in the small exceed as to why exactly they were on this quest, the slayer had quickly become so melancholy and enraged he'd stopped talking for days after. It wasn't unlike Gajeel to become a man of few words or even silence, but this was deeper than that.

"She was my kin, and I rejected her." Lilly froze atop the males shoulders. The cold not the reason for the small exceed to pause and turn to look at the slayers side profile. Gajeel's hair was longer than when they'd first met so long ago, thick locks of raven strands framed both sides of the males face. Nearly obscuring his ruby red draconic eyes. When the wind blew once more and shifted Gajeel's hair away from his face, Lilly could see the pain in the slayers eyes, so profound and raw it caused the exceed to reach out and place his small paw in the slayers cheek.

Gajeel took a slow breath and let the corner of his lips quirk at the small show of affection the exceed was showing to his slayer. They weren't the most affectionate partners but the trust and respect for each other was deep, unbreakable. Lilly had heard, from talks with the other slayers and Charle, for she seemed to have a good understanding about dragon ways than the others, that dragon kin was sacred to dragons. It was their chosen family, no other could replace or take away the feelings that bond caused. For a dragon to reject its kin, it was like cutting them off from their own soul or heart. It could kill a dragon too young or too weak.

"I made a mistake Lilly, and this one I don't know if I'll ever be able to be forgiven." He'd done so much as a Phantom. He'd hurt so many people and even a few were dead by his hands. At the time he hadn't cared, he was getting stronger and that's all he ever cared about. Master Jose had gotten into his head, tricked Gajeel's dragon to respect and become loyal. Lucy, he'd nearly killed her and Levy. He was one more strike away from splitting her spine in two or crushing her skull with his boot. Now she was nakama and she'd forgiven him. How or why was still up in the air but she had. The entire guild had. So maybe he can make this right.

That's why they were searching, that's why they were traveling at a breakneck speed over the hills and mountains. Clear to a different country, in the search for someone Gajeel had pushed away so long ago now. Hoping in his iron heart that she wasn't dead, that the feeling he had in his gut was pointing him in the right direction.


	7. Chapter 7

Wind picking up and the temperature dropped suddenly. Whistling through the snowcapped peaks the higher that Gajeel tread into the snow. The path was pretty much decimated at this point, little more than a way to squeeze through rock formations. His iron molded the spikes on his boots sharper so he wouldn't lose his footing on the slick stones. His hood ruffled on the edges at the wind started to howl and night fast approaching over the horizon.

"Damn..." He'd hoped that he'd make it to a safe spot to camp for the night. But it was looking like that wouldn't happen, his gaze shifted to Lilly on his shoulder. The exceed was bundled up in his own small coat and pants, courtesy of Lucy and Charle last winter solstice. But the small cat was still shivering.

Gajeel reached up and pulled the exceed from his shoulder, cradling the black cat in his arms and pulling his cloak tighter around so Lilly was fully covered and against Gajeel's warm chest and sweater. They didn't talk much, but Lilly was grateful for small acts of kindness like this. He curled into the slayer's arms and finally felt warm for the first time since they'd started up the mountain the day prior.

The path seemed to grow narrower, just barely enough for Gajeel's wide set shoulders to move but not much else. The stone and mountainside seemed to grow taller by the step, now it started to crawl higher and higher on either side of him as the path wound deeper into the mountain. Sparse trees were growing where they could, stone formations covered in thick layers of ice and snow were everywhere.

He stopped and breathed deeply into his nose, flaring his nostrils as scents made themselves known from under and around the white blankets of the snow around him. There had to be a cave of some sort nearby, this was the only route toward the mines from what he'd been told. There had to be an entrance somewhere soon, they had nearly crested this mountain top and it was a sheer cliff on the other side from what it looked like.

Gajeel sifted through the scents in his nose. Evergreen, sharp. Slate, layered on either side of him. Crisp ice crystals, the snow around him. Ore, deep in the mountains and even under his feet. Rich deposits of iron, gold and silver. Running and crisscrossing all around him, creating a map in his mind of the trials of the thickest and purest ores. His mouth watered at the thought and he felt his fangs lengthen in hunger. It'd been a few days since he'd had any iron but the small scraps he'd bartered for in the city. His strength was starting to wan, and he didn't want that to happen, he needed it.

Sniffing a few more times Gajeel followed the scent of warm water. Possibly a natural hot spring somewhere nearby hidden by stones and snow and caves. The closer he got the more scents were making themselves known. The tangy sharpness of a dragon made him stop once more and his grip on Lilly tightened a fraction. He knew this scent. He knew this dragon.


	8. Chapter 8

A hooded figure came around the corner further ahead of Gajeel. The iron slayer stood firm, his own hood billowing some in the winds as they ripped through the small thin space. The scent reaching his nose was not one he was expecting, at all. He knew this scent well but had never assumed he'd catch it or the person here in the mountains so far from Fiore. The two watched each other, for several moments before the other figure reached up and slid back his white hood of the cloak.

Deep blue eyes and yellow hair faced Gajeel and his own red eyes narrowed as none other than Sting Eucliff crossed his arms and looked over Gajeel's form. A low growl came from sting, Gajeel hadn't been expecting that from the white slayer before him. Though he hadn't expected to see Sting here of all places, he thought the white dragon and himself were on alright terms since the Grand Magic Games and the Eclipse Gate incident. They were allies at least, no longer enemies.

"Gajeel Redfox..." Sting's voice was much deeper than he remembered it, that was barely a year prior to now. It felt harsher to Gajeel's eyes, more masculine, mature. Maybe the brat had hit his peak into maturity finally.

He had no clue as to why the supposed new Master of Sabertooth was out of the country and in the damn wilderness.

"What are you doing here Redfox?" Sting didn't sound like his arrogant self. He sounded worried, his stance was barely into a defensive pose and there was white slayer magic circling around the mage.

"None of yer' damn business twerp." Gajeel growled low in his throat, eyes narrowing as Sting answered with his own rumbling growl. A deep thing that said he'd fought a harder battle than even the dragons gave them all. Something was up.

"Leave." Sting's magic grows more solid around him, waves of bright light.

"What are you doing here?" Gajeel tried to keep as neutral as he could. He didn't want to wage a fight here in this small pass. There wasn't room to move and one or both could become fodder for the snow and freeze to death in a collapse. "Thought you were the master of Sabertooth now? Why ain't ya with your guild then?"

The swirling magic about Sting grew tenfold and this time Gajeel did release some of his own, the black and silver almost like lightning, darting around his form as Sting snarled low and bared his fangs at Gajeel.

"Enough." A flash of pure shadow magic sliced between the two slayers, causing both to take a step back as the shadows dissipated into nothing. Looking up and over, Gajeel caught Rogue's red gaze peering from behind his raven hair, hood down as the wind whipped around him as he glared down at the two of them. "A blizzard is fast approaching."

He turned and vanished over the edge and was now out of Gajeel's sight. Turning, he found Sting still with his teeth bared but the white dragon slayer was pulling up his white hood and turning. Gajeel followed just far enough behind so he could see where they went but not close enough for Sting to get in some sort of attack. The animosity coming from the white slayer was much more than he'd felt from the games. Lilly shifted in his arms and peeked from the opening of Gajeel's thick cloak, his eyes glancing up but then the exceed slipping back into the warmth of the slayer's arms.

Gajeel wondered, why both twin slayers were so far out here. A deep sigh wanted to escape his chest. Perhaps the creatures he'd been hoping for were instead these two, training vigorously in the mountains and scaring the locals with rock slides and attacks. Not who he has been searching for all this time. He'd have to backtrack, find another lead and go from there. Somewhere along the way he'd made a mistake. He'd come so far to find her, only to be on the wrong trail now.

As he followed the twin dragon slayers, he noticed little changes, their shoulders seemed more defined, what he could see from their thick cloaks. Their scents held more power in them, more headier smells that clung to them. Something he was missing, the scent of ore on their persons. Neither one of these dragons ate ore, at all. Rogue's hood was still down, ignoring the winds as his much longer hair skirted over his shoulders in thick locks, looking much like Gajeel's had in his younger days when he'd kept the wild mane of his short.

The path grew darker as the walls of stone became higher, but it did widen somewhat. Before the twins as they stopped, was an opening in the face of stone, a single lit torch set in an eye hook. Rogue grasped the torch and started down the tunnel, the winds whistled higher pitched and the air seemed to ice the very blood in Gajeel's veins. He followed, glad to be out of the wind and cold as the storm started to really come for the mountain top.

Sting and Rogue were having a silent conversation with only facial expressions, finally Sting growled low in his throat and when Rogue answered with his own louder one. Gajeel felt his jaw want to drop to the floor as Sting closed his eyes and raised his chin, baring his damned throat to the shadow slayer for a moment. Gajeel knew all about dragon hierarchy, males fought for dominance and once it was established it wouldn't change for the duration of that dragon's life. Except for death, rejection or changing of nests. Mature dragons would start to showcase themselves in the hierarchy of the current kin. A dragon needed to reach peek maturity, which for a human was about twenty-five. Alphas clear down to omegas. Much like wolves of earthland but with more power, teeth and talons, scales.

It's why he and Laxus butted heads so much, they both were of that age to start establishing the levels of their den. But Laxus had no damn clue what his dragon was saying often and Gajeel sure as fuck wasn't going to explain that shit to a half ass dragon slayer. So, he steered clear of the lightning slayer and vice-versa. Another reason is that he and Natsu were constantly at odds because Natsu was so hot headed his dragon told him to be the alpha. He wasn't. No way in hell. Little fucking twerp didn't have it in him to lead let alone take a mate. Kid was too young for that shit. Little Wendy was easily their omega, and she fit right into that role. Her dragon was content with it and so were the others.

So, seeing Rogue put Sting in his place was a shock to the iron slayer. Rogue always seemed the lower of the two twin slayers. Always taking Sting's lead whatever, they were doing. But now, Sting had his throat open and Rogue's fangs were bared at the blonde slayer. They stayed locked like that until Sting's knees wobbled, a fraction of movement that Gajeel barely caught, but he caught it none the less. Then the two of them started back to walk down the cave corridor. The flickering light of the torch casting deep pitch-black shadows all around them.

Something had happened. Something had forced Rogue to take the slot as dominant male in this partnership of dragons. Question is, what.


End file.
